Craig Frear ** Scotia, NY ** 2004

Missing Since: June 27, 2004 from Scotia, Schenectady County, New York
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: October 14, 1986
Age: 17
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Brown
Race: White
Gender: Male
Distinguishing Characteristics: Craig has dimples, May have a goatee.
Clothing: Blue jeans, a white short sleeved t-shirt,
and Adidas sneakers with three black stripes.
Jewelry: He was wearing a gold chain with a gold St. Christopher medal.
AKA:"Craiger"
NCIC Number: M-025763633
Case Number: NCMC993450
Details of Disappearance
Craig was last seen on June 27, 2004 in Scotia, New York, as he left his car and walked into the woods. Scotia policemen combed the area and surrounding neighborhoods for the missing youth. They also questioned friends, relatives and neighbors. Photos of Craig were circulated around the city. Authorities expressed feelings that Craig might have just voluntarily left the area.

Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
New York State Police Department
Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Princetown, N.Y.
(518) 630-1700
Email

Source Information
New York State Police
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Crime Library
DCJS

State Police missing person poster for Craig Frear GLENVILLE — State police will search a wooded area behind the Price Chopper supermarket on Route 50 on Sunday in connection with a missing person case from nine years ago.

According to a state police news release, police will search starting at 9 a.m. for clues in the disappearance of Craig A. Frear, a student at Scotia-Glenville High School who went missing at the age of 17. This summer marks the ninth anniversary of his disappearance.

He disappeared after visiting a female friend at Cambridge Manor in Scotia and was last seen walking along a footpath toward the railroad tracks.

The disappearance was immediately reported by his parents, but authorities delayed alerting the media because they suspected he had ran away from home and thought news coverage would drive him farther away.

Sunday’s search will be conducted by volunteers from Northeast Mobile Search & Rescue. They have helped state police and forest rangers with other searches in the past. Frear’s brother, Matthew Frear, will also be involved.

Police say they have continued to investigate the disappearance in the years that followed, with interviews of family members, co-workers, neighbors and classmates.

In the spring of 2012, more than 60 people scoured along the Mohawk River, a search prompted by the discovery of a jawbone between locks 9 and 10. Even though forensic analysis confirmed the bone was not Frear’s, a search was still initiated. Before that, the area had been examined in 2009.

Frear’s family has posted a $10,000 reward for information that helps to find him.

CBS) Craig Frear of Scotia, N.Y. in Schenectady County was 17 when he was last seen on June 27, 2004.
Pictures: Upstate N.Y. boy missing since 2004

His mother, Veronica Frear, told Crimesider, "The day my son went missing is etched in my brain." "I had spoke(sic) to him on the phone...he was at a friend's house...and he said that he was on his way home," she said.

Craig was believed to be walking home from the Cambridge Manor Apartments, near a wooded area, although he had driven a car to visit a girlfriend at her mother's apartment.

According to Craig's brother, Matthew Frear, "He was last seen walking towards railroad tracks, and...in the direction of our house. He was never seen again."

As the day wore on, his family went looking for Craig: "We had walked back in those woods later that day probably about 5 o'clock to see if maybe he had tripped or anything such as that," his mother said.

There was no sign of him.

"When the sun started going down, and friends were calling back, and nobody knew where he was...I really started getting scared," said Veronica Frear.

CBS affiliate WRGB has reported that police don't think Craig Frear was at all despondent. They said although he had recently lost a job at a Price Chopper supermarket and had broken up with a girlfriend, he had been visiting a new girlfriend that day.

As Craig's mother puts it, "As far as the police are concerned if he had committed suicide then they would have found him by now."

In Oct. 2008, Lt. John Agresta of the New York State Police told WRGB police believe Craig "did not run away or that he's harmed himself. We believe some kind of harm has come to him."

New York State Police investigator Gloria Coppola told Crimesider that on the day he disappeared, Craig had argued with his mother on the phone after his parents found out he had lost his job - which Craig hadn't told them. Craig told his mother he'd be home in 10 minutes, says Coppola, but when he left his girlfriend's he walked away from where he'd parked his car. Coppola thinks Craig's father may have been waiting for him at the car, and that Craig chose to walk in a different direction to avoid a confrontation.

It's believed Craig wasn't carrying any I.D., and nothing else belonging to him has turned up since that June day in 2004.

"He didn't have any identification, he didn't have money, he didn't have his car. He didn't have anything on him...so the possibilities of where he could have gone are extremely limited - really it's a mystery," said his brother, Matthew.

Born Oct. 14, 1986, when Craig Frear went missing he was 5'11" and 190 lbs. He has brown eyes, and red hair, and was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, a white long-sleeved t-shirt, and Adidas sneakers with three black stripes.

If you have any information about this case, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (1) 800-THE-LOST, or New York State Police at 1-518-783-3210.

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SCOTIA -- Hoping to blunt the pain of the seventh anniversary of her son's disappearance, Veronica Frear went to work Monday morning, only to return home four hours later to grieve with family.

"He's so missed, it's like a big gaping hole right down the middle," she said Monday, recounting the pain of not seeing her son Craig since the afternoon of June 27, 2004, when he seemingly vanished without a trace while walking along railroad tracks after leaving his girlfriend's home at Cambridge Manor apartments in Scotia. "I wake up with him every morning and go to bed with him every night."

When he disappeared, Frear, 17, was going into his senior year at Scotia-Glenville High School, where he was co-captain of the soccer team.

Despite the passage of time, memories of her son have not faded and neither has her steely resolve to find out what happened to her middle child.

State Police Investigator Gloria Coppola with Major Crimes Unit said she continues to chase down the leads as fast as they come in.

Despite her worst fears, Coppola said, the case is "proactive" and they are hoping shining the spotlight on the case will lead to a break.

She noted that Frear did not have any identification, credit cards, cash or cellphone when he disappeared and therefore "did not have any means to start a life undetected."

Reward money is being offered, and Veronica Frear is also hopeful that by October, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, will distribute an age enhanced photo of Craig.

She said the family also recently posted a YouTube video, titled, "We Will Find You: Craig Frear." Narrated by Veronica Frear and Craig's older brother, Michael, it features photos of Craig in happier times, including with his junior prom date, taken five weeks before he disappeared.

The woman said the ordeal has been equally as hard on Michael and Craig's younger sister, Kathleen, and other relatives.

"We've been through this for so many years, it's a shame," said his grandmother, Theresa Sollecito.

SCOTIA, N.Y. - Today marks the 7th anniversary of Craig Frear's disappearance.
Frear was last seen near the Cambridge Manor Apartments in Scotia, walking towards the woods and railroad tracks. Police say they have not ruled out foul play.
Family members have put up a $10,000 reward for information leading to his whereabouts.